


We Paid Dearly

by MythicalViolet



Category: Rhett and Link, rhink - Fandom
Genre: Divorce, Infidelity, M/M, Marital Strife, cheating on your spouse is fucked up, seriously don't fucking do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 05:33:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11616954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythicalViolet/pseuds/MythicalViolet
Summary: Rhett and Link decide to be together, and end up paying a steep price.





	We Paid Dearly

“Okay folks, that’s a wrap!”

Rhett and Link silently collected their things and headed to the car. “I’ll drive.” Rhett muttered.

“Whatever.” Link said.

They rode home in painful silence, Link sternly staring out the window and Rhett concentrating on the road. He fumbled with the radio for a couple seconds; when a Merle Haggard song came on, the song they played at their wedding, he quickly cut it off. No need to open the wound right now.

The two men ate dinner in silence, then went their separate ways. They hadn’t slept in the same bed in two years.

Link laid in bed, reading a book, trying not to think of the inevitable conversation. He knew it had to happen soon. Maybe when this current work project is over.

He took off his glasses and reached over to turn off the light and go to sleep, when Rhett came storming in. 

“What the fuck?” he yelled as Rhett dropped a thick packet of paper on Link’s bed.

“So this is it, huh? You want out?”

Link put his glasses on and picked up the stack. It was the packet of divorce papers he picked up at his lawyer’s office two weeks ago.

“Where did you find these?”

Rhett slammed the door. Link braced himself for another shouting match. “Why does it matter? When were you planning on telling me you want a divorce?”

“After the film is done wrapping up.”

Rhett rolled his eyes. “Oh, how nice of you.”

Link tossed the paper aside. “Don’t act surprised, Rhett. We’ve been living like strangers for two years. It’s over.”

“So that’s it, then?” Rhett turned red. ”After 30 years, after everything I’ve done for you, you’re just going to toss all this away?”

Link wanted to throw something at Rhett but thought better of it. “You’re not the only one who’s made sacrifices for this relationship, you know. I gave up everything for you. _Everything_. My career, my family, anything that ever meant anything to me. I think I should have a say in how this ends.”

“So you want to end it?” Rhett said sadly, his angry face softening into a frown.

“Yes.” Link nodded slowly. “It’s time to admit we made a mistake.”

Rhett teared up. “Falling in love wasn’t a mistake.”

Link sighed and closed his eyes. “No, but everything that came after was. And we paid dearly.”

Rhett gently sat down on the bed, keeping his distance from Link, and let his words sink in.

_We paid dearly._

Five years earlier, Rhett and Link began an illicit relationship after coming to the conclusion that they were in love with each other. They entered into this relationship with eyes wide open, knowing the serious consequences if anyone ever found out. But they’d often tell themselves what faithful men they were, right before slipping away together. 

When the burden of secrecy became too much, they decided to come clean to their wives. Rhett was hopeful about their future together, insisting that Jessie might be okay with having an open marriage. Link was much less confident about Christy’s response.

Jessie threw Rhett out of the house the night he confessed. “I don’t care if he’s your best friend. I’m your wife! That should count for something!” She yelled, waking up the kids. During the following month, Rhett begged and pleaded with her, trying to reach a compromise. The last words Jessie said to him were “If I knew I had to share you with someone else, I wouldn’t have married you in the first place.” He had visitation with the boys, but it was always a tense affair, so he didn’t pressure them to do it. “They’ll come around eventually.” he said, deceiving himself.

Link was met with several weeks of silence, until one night when Christy told him she was taking the kids back east. Link knew there was no stopping her so he didn’t fight it. She wrote to him to keep him updated on how the kids were doing, but the letters became few and far between until they stopped all together. The boys would call once in awhile to fill him in; and he cherished those phone calls dearly. Link had no idea what Lily was up to; she hadn’t spoken to him since the divorce and asked the family not tell him anything about her. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Rhett and Link tried to keep the turmoil in their personal lives under wraps, but the YouTube rumor mill spun fiercely until they finally released a statement to their fans. After months of steady decrease in subscribers and lots of angry comments from fans who felt hurt and betrayed, they decided to close up Mythical Entertainment. Their life’s work and labor of love was gone because they decided their relationship was more important than being honest and responsible. They knew exactly what they had done, and that knowledge became their undoing.

Despite their personal problems, Rhett and Link were still considered a hot commodity and quickly found work in a successful production company. They got married in a quiet ceremony and enjoyed a few years of wedded bliss. They assumed it would be happily ever after going forward, but their mistakes and the pain they caused wrapped around their necks like chains until one day they realized they were choking.

That’s when the fighting started. They usually just yelled but sometimes it turned physically. After a particularly ugly public altercation, Link moved into the spare bedroom. Rhett refused to give up on the marriage since it was the only good thing he had going in his life by then. Link couldn't care less about what happened to them. He no longer had the energy..

After several minutes of silence, Rhett finally looked at Link. “You want the house?” He asked.

“Well it was mine in the first place, so yes.” Rhett had moved in with Link after Christy and the kids left. It seemed like a natural choice.

Rhett sighed and stood up, signaling that he had accepted the fate that was handed to him, the fate he created the night he chose Link over everything else.

As he walked out of the room, Link called out. “We did this, you know. It’s our fault. Not just the divorce, but everything.”

Rhett nodded as he shuffled out the room. He knew some truths didn’t need a response.


End file.
